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Tribune News Network
Doha
Qatar is expected to receive the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this year, a senior health official has said.
Dr Hamad Al Rumaihi, Director of Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control at the Public Health Department, said Qatar has signed deals with both Pfizer and Moderna to procure their COVID-19 vaccines.
“As per the agreement signed with Pfizer, Qatar will have priority in obtaining its vaccine. The Pfizer candidate by the end of 2020 and the Moderna’s in the first half of 2021,” Dr Al Rumaihi, who is also co-chair of the National Epidemic Preparation Committee, told Al-Rayyan TV.
After the arrival of the first batch, the rest of the batches will reach Qatar successively in stages over the next year, and the bulk of it will arrive during the first half of 2021, he added.
Dr Al Rumaihi’s statement came after drugmaker Moderna announced on Monday that its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5 percent effective, joining Pfizer as a front-runner in the global race to contain a raging pandemic. The vaccine candidate developed by Pfizer in collaboration with BioNTech is said to be more than 90 percent effective against the coronavirus.
Dr Al Rumaihi said Pfizer had previously announced that it would produce 50 million doses of its vaccine candidate this year, and subsequently produce 1.3 billion doses the next year.
He said Moderna would produce 20 million doses this year but that is allocated entirely to the United States. The American administration will manufacture between 500 million to one billion doses during the next year, he said.
Doha
Qatar is expected to receive the first batch of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this year, a senior health official has said.
Dr Hamad Al Rumaihi, Director of Health Protection and Communicable Disease Control at the Public Health Department, said Qatar has signed deals with both Pfizer and Moderna to procure their COVID-19 vaccines.
“As per the agreement signed with Pfizer, Qatar will have priority in obtaining its vaccine. The Pfizer candidate by the end of 2020 and the Moderna’s in the first half of 2021,” Dr Al Rumaihi, who is also co-chair of the National Epidemic Preparation Committee, told Al-Rayyan TV.
After the arrival of the first batch, the rest of the batches will reach Qatar successively in stages over the next year, and the bulk of it will arrive during the first half of 2021, he added.
Dr Al Rumaihi’s statement came after drugmaker Moderna announced on Monday that its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5 percent effective, joining Pfizer as a front-runner in the global race to contain a raging pandemic. The vaccine candidate developed by Pfizer in collaboration with BioNTech is said to be more than 90 percent effective against the coronavirus.
Dr Al Rumaihi said Pfizer had previously announced that it would produce 50 million doses of its vaccine candidate this year, and subsequently produce 1.3 billion doses the next year.
He said Moderna would produce 20 million doses this year but that is allocated entirely to the United States. The American administration will manufacture between 500 million to one billion doses during the next year, he said.
